I have a couple of things lined up to list next week already as I work on some larger projects to get listed.

I am working on a quilt with flower fabrics, a new toothbrush rug, sets of double thick crocheted hot pads with matching coasters, and I have 2 table runners I want to get put together. I have one more fabric bag ready to sew and material enough to make 3 or 4 more of the Save the Earth bags.

On to the sweetheart Celebration---Monday, January 9, 2012 is the last day for get the early bird pricing of just $5 for a 45 minute presentation time. Hurry in and grab your spot! We are back on track on having these online parties and they just get better with each one and more and more know about them.

Friday, January 6, 2012

I really had hoped to have the quilt I am working on completed by today. You know about those best laid out plans---we ended up being away from home a lot this past week. I only have 3 rows of 8 sewn together on it.

Today I will share the folded hotpads that I've been making. I went as a visitor in November to the local quilt guild meeting. During that meeting they had what they called mini-demos. One of them was on how to make these folded hotpads. I was excited. I had just bought some insulbrite a couple days earlier with the intention of making hot pads with some fat quarters I had won over on listia.com some time ago. I stayed after the meeting to get further one on one instructions.

I do hope these count for the TGIFF since I did learn how to make them at quilt guild. I did since join the quilt guild and am very happy! Last months meeting was a Christmas party and we had a motivational speaker who was excellent! This month's meeting will last a couple hours longer and we bring our machines and work on project. Am I excited?? You bet I am!

Anyway, here are the hotpads. When I learn something new that I like, I go with it for awhile. I have material cut for 2 more sets yet. however, I highly doubt after I put the next 2 sets together if I ever make the hotpads again (unless they do sell in my etsy store.

This isn't quilting but I want to tell you about the Granny Square a Day 2012 that I am taking part in. I've not made granny squares in many many years. I am making some other things with my yarn stash, but doing a granny square a day this year will take care of what is left from my other projects too! Here is a photo of the 6 squares I have done so far along with the button if you would like to see how others are doing and/or join in yourself.

Good Morning! I hope your new year is off to a frugal start.
I have some things in mind that I've not gotten to, and at the same time I've been doing well.
I plan, first of all, on making the homemade Bisquik. Hopefully I will get to that today.
I've been doing some things like making sure lights are turned off in rooms we aren't in, or they aren't on if we don't really need them on. I'm working on getting crafts done from my stash of supplies. Seriously, if I didn't buy any more supplies, I have enough to keep me busy I would guess for 3 or 4 years! I did buy a spool of thread, but a couple more would keep me in my sewing too with all the material I have.

I built 2 new squidoo lenses this past week that are along the lines of saving money and being frugal. I will link those up in the linky this week. Yes, you may link up any url you like as long as it's on subject, not just blog posts.

I was looking through this 99 Cent Solutions book and realizing that sharing out of the way I am, it would be a couple more years at least to get through the whole book. I hope to start doing separate blog posts with more throughout the week and just linking them up to this post. That way we can call learn faster from the book and I might actually get through it too.

This week it's 4 uses for meat tenderizer:
1. Take the bite out of a mosquito attack. Slather on a paste made by mixing a little meat tenderizer with a few drops of water on that itchy red bump. Let it sit for 5 minutes before washing it off. If you catch the bite right away there will be no mark at all left. Even hours later you will still reduce the redness and swelling significantly.

2. Ease a sting. The same trick works for a wasp or hornet sting, relieving the pain almost instantly. If the stinger is still in the skin, gently remove it with tweezers, being careful not to squeeze it deeper into the wound. Apply the meat tenderizer and water paste and let it remain on the skin until it dries and flakes off. This take about 15 minutes or so. The enzymes break down the toxins from the sting.

3. Soothe lower back pain. Mix 1/4 cup meat tenderizer with 2 tablespoons of water, adding a bit more as needed to make a runny paste. Rub this right into the skin over your aching lower back. Ideally, cover the area with a washcloth dipped in hot water and squeezed out. After 10 or 15 minutes you will feel the muscles start to relax. Rinse it off and take it easy.

4. Take on touch stains. Hot chocolate, coffee with milk, blood---these protein based stains are usually nearly impossible to remove completely. If the stain is still wet you have the best chance. If not, wet he cloth and hope for the best. Sprinkle the stained area thickly with meat tenderizer, rub it in, and let it rest for 1 hour. Then launder as usual.

Thursday, January 5, 2012

Welcome to the first squidoo hop of the new year. I hope this post finds everyone with a re-newed outlook for the new year.

I've found myself sidetracked in squidoo quite often this past week. Just now I was doing a search to find the instructions to crochet a granny square and towards the top of my search was a lens!I believe that I only updated one lens this past week. I had to update This Day in History August 15. I had put it down as Araya's birthday but it's Willo's! Oopsie! I do still have to build one for Araya's birthday, as well as my mom's, and 2 of my grandsons--Tristian and Cash.

I did build 2 new lenses though....2 in a week for me?? The first one is Crafts as Gifts 2012. I realized that my original Crafts as Gifts lens was just getting far too large. I have vowed to make 2012 a home made gift year, so I plan on having plenty to add to the lens throughout the year. I started the lens with a few items that I hadn't added to my original lens. (I also made a page here on my blog Handmade in 2012 Linky, so please do continue to add links on hand made items to the list. I'm loving what has been added so far.)

A couple of days ago I had newspapers on my mind. I was away from home all day, but once home I spent over 2 hours putting together a Uses for Newspapers lens. Wow! A search came up with hundreds of things spanning several websites. I opted to just list the things I have done, along with one I would like to try.....then make a link list with websites of other lists.

In other news---no reply yet on my request to use a scanned picture of the postcard in my Elvis lens. I'm thinking I probably will not get a reply. Several have told me about fair use, but just like my husband, say that Graceland is a stickler on copyright. I still wish I could find the rest of the postcards that I bought while I was there.

I am off for this week, but I do hope to see lots of you link up this week.

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Whew! The holidays are over and the craziness of trying to get gifts done and such. I feel like it had been forever since I got to sit down in front of my sewing machine.I finally got in a couple days of making it in for some sewing.I was able to get 2 rows and part of a row done on my flower print quilt. I had hoped I could have it done by Friday for the TGIFF post, but there is just no way.

This is how far I am so far on the quilt top for sewing club at church:

I am working through my yarn and plastic canvas stash by making double thick crocheted hotpads and matching coasters. This will be a work as I can project......I really am ready to delve into making rugs while I sit and do things on the computer instead. I'm sure I will bounce back and forth as usual.

Pretty short report for this week but I am about to run out the door and run a couple of errands. As soon as I get home I really want to get in to my sewing machine!

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and I hope your new year is off to a good start.

We've still been on Christmas break this past week. I don't have any photos to share this week.

The usual things happened like attending church. Christmas morning church was wonderful as we sang a lot of Christmas hymns in place of several things in the service. We had a guest pastor (one of our own out of seminary and waiting on a call). His sermon was on the timeline of Christmas. It was quite interesting and he did it with congregation participation. She attended her youth group meeting on Wednesday evening. Other than that, she has spent a lot of time with friends....overnights.

Jasmine got out a diet and fitness journal just before Christmas and has read it and studied it cover to cover. She says it's not a diet, but a lifestyle change. As far as food the first changes I am helping her make is buying skim milk and low fat cheese. She received a bicycle for Christmas from my husband. She's not missed many days of going out and doing a little riding, despite her bad knee. We've been fortunate to have weather mostly in the 50's as of late. The next step is to get the exercise equipment back out of the closet downstairs so she can work on it daily. You can also learn to maintain a healthy body and mind with these health and fitness related schools. My daughter and her boyfriend came and got a lot of their stuff out of the basement, so there is room to get the equipment back out now.

I'm always changing something in the way we homeschool. Nothing new here, I've been changing and changing again since I started homeschooling my children in 1998. I started this week by sitting down and writing out assignments for Jasmine for the week. I used to do this all the time, especially when I was homeschooling 3 of the children at once. Jasmine and I haven't ever done this since it's just been her left to teach. What I am writing down are things she can do on her own when I am busy away from home, or we are away from home together, or on my husband's days off work. This will help to ensure that a lot more school work gets done each week.

I'm going to hop along now...we have to be off to the DMV to get her ID and then to the post office to apply for her passport. Then it's off to Bible study and after that a trip to the library to get books. Please pray that she gets her passport in time to make the trip to England in March!!

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